The Cost of Inflation

Charles Hugh Smith on ZeroHedge:

Yes, It Is Different This Time

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/yes-it-different-time

“The worker making $3.50/hour in 1974 could buy more and save more than the worker making $20/hour today.

As an experienced (but not yet full journeyman) non-union carpenter in 1977 (age 23), I was earning $7.50/hour. According to official inflation, that's worth almost $36/hour today.

How many experienced 23-year old carpenters make $36/hour today? My guess is relatively few, though short-term piecework and boomtown jobs may offer high wages for brief periods. By my calculations of what I could buy then for $7.50/hour, the equivalent today is more like $45/hour.

…

When I was a builder in the mid-1980s, we paid 100% of our employees' full-coverage healthcare insurance. It was about $50/month for each individual and around $150/month for a family.

According to official inflation, $50 in 1985 is now worth $132. Can you buy full-coverage healthcare insurance for an individual for $132 a month now? No. "According to research published by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2019, the average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance for annual premiums was $7,188 for single coverage and $20,576 for family coverage." That's $600/month for a single individual.“